Pakistan's Bonded Laborers Sell Their Own Kidneys To Escape Debts

Pakistan's modern-day slavers ensnare their workers under so much debt, that the bonded laborers are resorting to selling their kidneys through illegal transplant operations in desperate bids to escape their servitude. It is estimated that three quarters of the country's annual 2,000 kidney operations are illegal, and horrifically exploitative:

Millions of Pakistanis live in bonded labour. Some sell kidneys in the hope of paying back cash advances from landlords and freeing themselves from their modern-day slavery.

Bones jutting out of his skin, Mohammad Ilyas became the fourth person in a family of 11 to sell a kidney in an effort to pay off a loan near Islamabad.

‘I saw a big bucket full of knives, cutters and scissors... I got scared. I thought about running away but all the doors were locked and I was surrounded by half a dozen men who were about to cut my body,’ he said.

Debt bondage is said to be a major problem in Pakistan's carpet weaving, and brick-making, businesses:

In Pakistan, human rights groups say kiln owners often dupe the poor into bonded labor by giving them loans. Families agree to work off the debt but their bosses add on high interest and living expenses, making it impossible to repay debt, as their salaries are often less than $5 a day.